Apparatus for separating sheets, envelopes, and the like



P 1953 J. R. BAMBER' 1 2,634,125

APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING SHEETS ENVELOPES/AND THE LIKE Filed Dec. 11,1947 Patented Apr. 7, 1953 UNITED] STATES ATENT osr cs John RichardBamber, London, England, as-

signor, by mesne assignments, to Unifold Mail ing Machines, Inc.,Saginaw, Mich.

Application December ll, 1947, Serial No. 791,059

r In Great. Britain March 13, 1946 a ,s l This invention relates toapparatus forSeparating sheets, envelopes and blanks of paper,cardboard, or the like from piles for the purpose of delivering them oneby one to a machine, for

instance in the case of documents to be delivered one: by one and.inserted into envelopes.

In the apparatus according to the present in- 1 Claim. (Cl. 271- 26)vention use is made of means of the kind in which the documents or thelike, hereinafter referred to as sheets, are taken one by one from thetop of the pile by means of a suction device mechanically operated insuch a manner that in each cycle: of operation it first makes contactwith the uppermostsheet in the. pile so as. to grip it by suction andthen separate the sheet from the pile and carries it. to a deliveryposition, whereupon the suction action is released to allow the suctiondevice to return to the position for taking up the next sheet from thepile.

Referring to the accompanying drawings illustrating the inventionFigures '1 and 2 arerespectively a plan view and a part sectionalelevation of the improved apparatus.

One or more suction nozzles I9 are carried by a shaft 20 by means ofbrackets 2| The said shaft extends horizontally above the top of the.pile of sheets a adjacent one side thereof and being arranged to slideat its ends in slots provided in a pair of rocking arms 22 fixed to ahorizontal rock shaft 23 located underneath the pile of sheets a, thesaid rocker arms being so arranged that they project upwardly from therock shaft 23 at opposite sides of the pile. Located adjacent the arms22 are a pair of vertical reciprocating push rods 24 passing throughguide sleeves 25 and attached to track bars 26 adapted to support theshaft 29 through the intermediary of antifriction rollers 2'! mounted onthe ends of the shaft 20.

The mechanism is operated from an electric motor 28 through theintermediary of suitable mechanism. 29 is a speed reducing gear beltdriven from the shaft of the electric motor and driving two cams 33 and3| respectively operating the push rods 24 and the rock shaft 23. Thepush rods 24 are moved up and down by a lever 32 which is held by aconnecting link 33. The rock shaft 23 is operated by the cam. 3| throughan operating lever 34 and link 35. The general arrangement is such thatthe cams referred to actuate the push rods 24 in such a manner thatduring each cycle of operation the push rods are firstloweredsufliciently to allow the suction nozzle or nozzles l9 to movedownwards to the maximum extent which may be necessary to bring theminto engagement with the. top of the pile, being then raised sothat theylift the nozzle or nozzles. to a fixed level for the delivery of asheet; The arrangement. is further suchthat there is a dwell at each endof the reciprocating movement of the push rods.

There is a fixed time relation between the two guiding mechanisms ofpush rods and rock shaft. The actuating mechanism of the rock shaft issuch that durin v each cycle. of operation the rocking arms zz'move inthe following manner: at the end of the upward movement: of the pushrods 24 the rocker arms are inclined forwardly as shown in full lines inFigure 2 so asto deliver a sheet held by the suction nozzle or nozzlesin between the roller 4 and a feeding roller 36 or other means forcarrying the sheet away. The arms return to a vertical position duringthe dwell at the upper end of the reciprocating movement of the pushrods 24 and remain in this vertical position during the downwardmovement of the push rods. vDuring the dwell at the lower end of the.movement of the push rods the arms 22 rock rearwardly to the positionshown in broken lines and then during the upward stroke of the push rodsthe armsreturn to the forwardly inclined position; this cycle ofoperations is reg ularly repeated. 31 is a spring which keeps down thesheet at the edge after lifting and until it is taken up by the rollers4 and 36.

Each of the suction nozzles I9 is connected by means of a flexibleconduit 38 to a fan or other suitable source of suction 39 which is beltdriven by the electric motor 23. The said conduit 38 is connected to thesuction side of the fan 39.

The suction nozzles l9 are provided with a control valve consisting ofan inner fixed sleeve 4| surrounded by an outer spring controlled sleeve42 provided with an arm 43 having attached thereto the one end of aspring 44, the other end of which is attached to a fixed part of theapparatus. The free end of the arm 43 is arranged to abut against a pin44a mounted on a bracket 45 which in its turn is adjustably mounted on afixed bracket 46. The valve 4|, 42 is so controlled by the drivingmechanism of the apparatus as to release the suction at the end of eachswinging movement of the rocker arms 22,

whereupon they grip the sheet by suction in a well-known manner.Backward movement of the rocking arms 22 then produces a tiltingmovement of the suction nozzle or nozzles whereby a separation of theuppermost sheet a from the pile is effected; The push rods then moveupwardly so that the bearing surfaces or tracks 26 thereof engage therollers 21 to lift the shaft 20 with the suction nozzle or nozzles so asto raise the separated sheet from the pile. At the same time the rockerarms 22 rock forwards and deliver the sheet to the feed rollers 4 and 36or other mechanism for carrying the sheet away. During this forwardrocking movement the arm 43 attached to the outer sleeve 42 of the valveprovided on the suction nozzle abuts against the abutment 440; whichupon the further forward movement of the suction nozzle carried by theshaft 20 causes the outer sleeve 42 of the valve to move in such adirection as to open the valve against the action of the spring 44. Nowthe suction is released from the suction nozzle or nozzles and thesheet, is released therefrom as it is delivered to the feed rollers 4and 36. The rocker arms now return to the vertical position, whereuponthe push rods 24 again commence to move downwards in order to initiate afurther cycle of operations.

The machine thus delivers the sheets one by one from the top of the pileand the movements of the suction nozzle or nozzles are adjustedautomatically to accommodate the diminishing height of the pile, so thatno mechanism for feeding the pile upwards as its height diminishes isnecessary.

I claim:

An apparatus for separating sheets from the top of a pile by means of asuction nozzle, connected by a suction tube to a source producing avacuum for the purpose of delivering them one by one to another part ofthe apparatus and comprising a carriage for the said nozzle, a rockingmember for moving the said carriage and therewith the nozzle towards andaway from the pile, means for operating the rocking arm, up and downmovable means supporting the carriage and therewith the nozzle, therocking member having a slideway to allow the carriage to move up anddown, and a valve mounted on the suction nozzle for automatically timingthe operation of the suction, characterised by the feature that the saidvalve is of the sleeve type comprising an inner sleeve and an outersleeve and that means are provided for rotating the outer sleeverelatively to the inner sleeve of the valve, the latter meanscomprising: a radial arm fixed to the outer sleeve, a spring having oneend attached to the said arm and the other end attached to a stationarypart of the apparatus, and a stationary abutment for the said radialarm,whereby upon the said carriage moving the nozzle away from the pile withthe sheet kept thereon by suction and nearing the end of the movement,the said radial arm comes against the said stationary abutment and theouter sleeve is rotated relatively to the inner sleeve of the valveagainst the action of the saidspring, thereby opening the valve andreleasing the suction, and upon the return movement of carriage andnozzle, and the radial arm leaving the stationary abutment, the outersleeve closes the valve under the action of the spring and suction isagain applied to the nozzle.

JOHN RICHARD BAMBER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 317,929 Cox May 12, 18851,625,578 Tremper Apr. 19, 1927 1,814,021 Buttner July 14, 19311,820,469 Low Aug. 25, 1931 2,097,587 Dearing Nov. 2, 1937 2,224,802Spiess Dec. 10, 1940 2,274,797 Kluge Mar. 3, 1942 2,282,411 SundstrandMay 12, 1942 2,295,055 Rupp et al Sept. 8, 1942 2,350,511 Lake et a1June 6, 1944 5 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 18,052 Great Britainof 1911 271,509 Great Britain Sept. 29, 1927

